Gender discourse democratization: Cosmopolitan and Men’s Health

Abstract

The present investigation lies within the fields of discourse analysis and gender studies. The author of the study aims to monitor the process of gender discourse democratization as manifested in such widely-read life-style magazines as Men’s Health and Cosmopolitan. The central ambition of the research is to illustrate the process of gender topic and gender language co-penetration by conducting a critical analysis of a selection of texts taken from the magazines under analysis. As a final result of her research, the author of the study exposes and classifies the evidence of co-penetration between what is known as ‘traditional’ male and female topics/situations, as well as language choices. The present study represents a rather new approach to gender discourse analysis as, instead of polarizing male and female discourse, it focuses on certain “unisex” discourse features that reflect the ongoing social change in terms of the traditional concepts of femininity and masculinity. Apart from the fields of discourse analysis and linguistics, the results of the study can be used for further research within such disciplines as sociology and media studies.